Growing Up Mandela

Nelson Mandela is a heroic and iconic figure, a symbol of spiritual strength, forgiveness and leadership to the entire world. Now the next generation of Mandelas are finding their place in the world. Mandela’s granddaughters Zaziwe Diamini Manaway, 35, andSwati Diamini, 33, are the stars of the new reality show “Being Mandela,” a 13-episode show airing on COZI TV starting on February 10 at 9 p.m.

The sisters are the daughters of Nelson and Winnie’s daughter Zenani Mandela and Prince Thumbumuzi Dlamini, a Prince of Swaziland. Although the family lived in exile in the U.S. while their grandfather was in jail, they returned to their homeland of South Africa as teenagers and currently live in Johannesburg.

They say that although they respect their grandfather’s history, they didn’t check in with him before agreeing to do the show.

“No, we didn’t have to ask him. I mean, our grandfather is 95. So we don’t actually go and ask him things like this,” Zaziwe told thegriot.com. “But the Mandela name is our name as well. So he entrusts us to do well by the name, to respect the name, to treat it with integrity and to produce something that he can be proud of.

So we just know that he supports us in everything that we do and we take pride in our name, so we would never do anything to tarnish the name in any way.”